I came across a couple of early reviews on the IGN boards for Juiced.
Gamestyle
Their buttom line is: Juiced is a better game than Need for Speed Underground - it's smoother, slicker and meatier
But they somehow still end up giving it a 7 and giving Underground 8 ... =/. Apparently their excuse is that they expect a lot of NFSU2 ... so to give that one a breather, they pull this one down ... does that make sense to any of you? Good review ... bad score.
and TotalGames have a much more fruitful and very detailed review.
Their most significant quote is ... a modding simulator that surpasses anything found in EA's Need For Speed: Underground. Juiced is a game that aims to embrace the underground race and modding scene from the ground up. Where as EA offered glitz and no real meat, Juiced aims to make gameplay the priority.
I agree with that fully ... they also ended up giving this game a round 90%, which imo sounds much more plausible...
Their buttom line: The career mode and its many under-the-bonnet qualities, such as detailed modding, gambling and team racing, genuinely aims to offer something new to the genre. This isn't simply a re-sprayed Need For Speed, or a retuned PGR2, but a strong brand racer in its own right.
[Juiced] Early reviews
This review was from http://www.computerandvideogames.com and is a bit old. Can't link it directly because their system doesn't show the direct link ... so here it is. It's overly critical, imo ... but the final judgement is fine with me 
.
21 Sep 04 Before I get started on the actual game part of Juiced (and trust me, I will get started on it), I want to address an issue I have with the presentation of the damn thing. Basically, I've never played a game in the whole 16 years I've been toiling these fields that's made such a concerted effort to alienate me.
Let me explain. Following the installation of Acclaim's answer to EA's answer to The Fast And The Furious, a dazzling young urbanite making her way in the world of UK garage music by the name of Shystie proceeds to throw lyrics along the lines of, "Tits up, clutch down, pedal to the floor" in an irritating high-pitched whine. All accompanied by the kind of low-rent music video that normally gets played at three in the morning on cable-only music channels. This is carried through the game, with the Shysters appearing as an in-game racer, the soundtrack comprising urban beats and flavas from all corners of the UK garage scene and every piece of text appearing to have been sprayed on the screen by a passing tagging crew.
Now I'm not saying youth is evil or that garage rap is a gateway genre to the horrors of trance or anything like that. But when that's the only presentation theme on offer in the game, well, you are kind of limiting your audience appeal somewhat.
AGE CONCERN
Juiced attempts to ape its console brethren at every corner. But genre-defining titles like Gran Turismo, Project Gotham and NFS Underground at least give you plenty of options to tailor the game's feel to your own tastes. Personally speaking, an Xbox hard drive filled with Lemon Jelly, 4Hero and Eric Cartman belting out Come Sail Away while screaming around a digitally rendered Leicester Square makes for a perfect evening's entertainment.
Instead, Juiced constantly seems to be screaming, "For God's sake OLD MAN, why are you playing this? Trying to keep IN WITH DA KIDZ are you? Sad GIT" at me. Not strictly speaking the game's fault of course, but then anyone who doesn't fall squarely into the 14 to 18-year-old inner city audience bracket that Acclaim has decided are the only people worth making games for is going to feel irritated, slighted and more than a little put out.
DANCING DADS
Which is annoying as hell because a) I really, really like driving games like this, and b) I'M ONLY 32. I'm not old (and this is an autonomous collective etc etc). That said, as long as you don't mind having your tastes in modern popular culture ridiculed at every turn, there's a lot to enjoy in Juiced.
The premise, as you've probably gathered by now, is The Fast And The Furious in game form. Treading a similar path to Need For Speed Underground and Midnight Club (must be one of those 'youth trends'), here you also get the chance to sample life as leader of a 'street crew', a gang of designer label-clad drivers and mechanics trying to earn 'nuff respect to dominate the illegal street racing scene in a fictional LA-style setting.
RESPECT MAH AUTHORITAH!
These elements of crew leadership and respect points are key to why Juiced scores over the previous entries in the boy racer genre. There's as much at stake off the racetracks as there is on. The way you paint, fit and mod your cars, the tricks you perform while racing, the amount you're willing to bet on races - it all has a bearing on how the other tattooed lunkheads in da hood treat you.
YOU DON'T EVEN HAVE TO DRIVE YOURSELF, IF YOU FEEL THAT YOUR
skills are under par. Although we're not talking Champ Man levels of interaction, there's just enough of a tactical edge to the game to put Juiced ahead of other street racers.
There's plenty of variety too. Aside from the sheer number of cars on offer and the amount of personalisation to be had (although you can't help feeling that progress up the tech tree is a little too linear), the actual events offer plenty to keep you busy. Standard circuit and point-to-point races, speed challenges, drag races, show off modes, one-on-one challenges with money, prestige or even entire cars on the line.
POSITIVE SPIN
Aside from my personal levels of social discomfort with Juiced, there's not much to fault here. Acclaim does need to tweak some of the car handling - especially in the higher-powered muscle cars, which have a tendency to spin out of control before you've moved three feet off the line. Also, don't even think about playing the game unless your PC is similarly muscular - you'll need Far Cry levels of compatibility at least. Saying that, if you are running at a full spec, you'll be able to enjoy some of the most spectacular-looking street racing to date. Just make sure you turn the volume down and hide the screen when the kids walk past your window - or you'll quickly feel very, very old indeed.
9 / 10
Excellent, or should I say 'wikkid'
• Great sense of personalisation Team modes add new tactics to the racing Gorgeous on high-spec PCs Impressive AI
• Dodgy handling in the more powerful cars It will make you feel old (unless you're 14)
Requires
• PIII 933, 128MB RAM and a 32MB 3D card (DirectX 9.0b compatible)
Desires
• P4 2GHz, 512MB RAM, a 128MB 3D card and a joypad
. 21 Sep 04 Before I get started on the actual game part of Juiced (and trust me, I will get started on it), I want to address an issue I have with the presentation of the damn thing. Basically, I've never played a game in the whole 16 years I've been toiling these fields that's made such a concerted effort to alienate me.
Let me explain. Following the installation of Acclaim's answer to EA's answer to The Fast And The Furious, a dazzling young urbanite making her way in the world of UK garage music by the name of Shystie proceeds to throw lyrics along the lines of, "Tits up, clutch down, pedal to the floor" in an irritating high-pitched whine. All accompanied by the kind of low-rent music video that normally gets played at three in the morning on cable-only music channels. This is carried through the game, with the Shysters appearing as an in-game racer, the soundtrack comprising urban beats and flavas from all corners of the UK garage scene and every piece of text appearing to have been sprayed on the screen by a passing tagging crew.
Now I'm not saying youth is evil or that garage rap is a gateway genre to the horrors of trance or anything like that. But when that's the only presentation theme on offer in the game, well, you are kind of limiting your audience appeal somewhat.
AGE CONCERN
Juiced attempts to ape its console brethren at every corner. But genre-defining titles like Gran Turismo, Project Gotham and NFS Underground at least give you plenty of options to tailor the game's feel to your own tastes. Personally speaking, an Xbox hard drive filled with Lemon Jelly, 4Hero and Eric Cartman belting out Come Sail Away while screaming around a digitally rendered Leicester Square makes for a perfect evening's entertainment.
Instead, Juiced constantly seems to be screaming, "For God's sake OLD MAN, why are you playing this? Trying to keep IN WITH DA KIDZ are you? Sad GIT" at me. Not strictly speaking the game's fault of course, but then anyone who doesn't fall squarely into the 14 to 18-year-old inner city audience bracket that Acclaim has decided are the only people worth making games for is going to feel irritated, slighted and more than a little put out.
DANCING DADS
Which is annoying as hell because a) I really, really like driving games like this, and b) I'M ONLY 32. I'm not old (and this is an autonomous collective etc etc). That said, as long as you don't mind having your tastes in modern popular culture ridiculed at every turn, there's a lot to enjoy in Juiced.
The premise, as you've probably gathered by now, is The Fast And The Furious in game form. Treading a similar path to Need For Speed Underground and Midnight Club (must be one of those 'youth trends'), here you also get the chance to sample life as leader of a 'street crew', a gang of designer label-clad drivers and mechanics trying to earn 'nuff respect to dominate the illegal street racing scene in a fictional LA-style setting.
RESPECT MAH AUTHORITAH!
These elements of crew leadership and respect points are key to why Juiced scores over the previous entries in the boy racer genre. There's as much at stake off the racetracks as there is on. The way you paint, fit and mod your cars, the tricks you perform while racing, the amount you're willing to bet on races - it all has a bearing on how the other tattooed lunkheads in da hood treat you.
YOU DON'T EVEN HAVE TO DRIVE YOURSELF, IF YOU FEEL THAT YOUR
skills are under par. Although we're not talking Champ Man levels of interaction, there's just enough of a tactical edge to the game to put Juiced ahead of other street racers.
There's plenty of variety too. Aside from the sheer number of cars on offer and the amount of personalisation to be had (although you can't help feeling that progress up the tech tree is a little too linear), the actual events offer plenty to keep you busy. Standard circuit and point-to-point races, speed challenges, drag races, show off modes, one-on-one challenges with money, prestige or even entire cars on the line.
POSITIVE SPIN
Aside from my personal levels of social discomfort with Juiced, there's not much to fault here. Acclaim does need to tweak some of the car handling - especially in the higher-powered muscle cars, which have a tendency to spin out of control before you've moved three feet off the line. Also, don't even think about playing the game unless your PC is similarly muscular - you'll need Far Cry levels of compatibility at least. Saying that, if you are running at a full spec, you'll be able to enjoy some of the most spectacular-looking street racing to date. Just make sure you turn the volume down and hide the screen when the kids walk past your window - or you'll quickly feel very, very old indeed.
9 / 10
Excellent, or should I say 'wikkid'
• Great sense of personalisation Team modes add new tactics to the racing Gorgeous on high-spec PCs Impressive AI
• Dodgy handling in the more powerful cars It will make you feel old (unless you're 14)
Requires
• PIII 933, 128MB RAM and a 32MB 3D card (DirectX 9.0b compatible)
Desires
• P4 2GHz, 512MB RAM, a 128MB 3D card and a joypad
Yeah, read those. I got to say, a street racing game getting a score of 90 is pretty rare. I wonder what the slackers at Gamespot and IGN will give it... Sadly people tend to follow 'those' scores and make their decisions based on that... To me it seems anything from EA gets a good deal on those sites, therefore expect NFSU2 to be praised as the next best thing since sliced bread, and Juiced being a sad clone. Time will tell...
Although I also agree, NFSu2 with horrible car graphics (so low poly!) and absolutely horrendous bodykits loses all its appeal. What is beyond me is how a little firm like Fun4Games gets to design 50 manufacturer's parts on cars, while a juggernaught of EA can't friggin get anything licenced, bar stikcers. And even than, it can't depict them correctly (wheels..).
Although I also agree, NFSu2 with horrible car graphics (so low poly!) and absolutely horrendous bodykits loses all its appeal. What is beyond me is how a little firm like Fun4Games gets to design 50 manufacturer's parts on cars, while a juggernaught of EA can't friggin get anything licenced, bar stikcers. And even than, it can't depict them correctly (wheels..).
IT's EA's own mistake... It all depends I guess on who develops the games... For F1 Challenge EA did a great job, with so much modding possibilities, that they don't make the game anymore and still get peopel looking to buy it... BUT NFS Franchise has degenerated since the release of NFSHP2. They are aiming in the future to be the GT for PC - haha, I say stop dreaming and get some designers who can build decent car models and physics (boy that's a mess right now). Harsh, ok, yes, I'm sure they are all nice guys and are restricted by corporate and mkt guidelines of what the 'survey' say NFS should be - but if it goes on like this, they will ruing the franchise.
yep my favo NFS still are NFS 4 high stakes and NFS porsche... they looked cool (for the time, and still do) and where in a way realistic... and fun...
I liked Underground but it had a huge number of flaws... to many...
I still got hopes for NFS U2... if the gameplay is good.... and the new stock cars look better IMO
I liked Underground but it had a huge number of flaws... to many...
I still got hopes for NFS U2... if the gameplay is good.... and the new stock cars look better IMO
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Texhnolith
- Turbo Charged
- Posts: 184
- Joined: 13 Aug 2004, 22:29
- Location: Eindhoven, The Netherlands
EA Tried.. so I read on IGN. But THQ beat them to it.TheStig wrote:I wondered the same....
why can't a big company as EA get licenced stuff....
same goes for the polies, I don't mind a lower poly count aslong as the dimentions are right... (wich in NFS U1 was not in most cases)
http://pc.ign.com/articles/555/555184p1.html
LOL I can't to be honest... but then again I don't really follow all the games and relaese dates and stuff normally I really don't care and if I don't 100% feel I like the game... I'm not buying it directly and wait till it is cheaper. (alot cheaper ) for like 10 or 5 euro.
most of the time I hear it from friends, exept nfs...
and I hardly play other games then racing games. I try other things once in a while but mostly get back to racing...
) for like 10 or 5 euro. most of the time I hear it from friends, exept nfs...
and I hardly play other games then racing games. I try other things once in a while but mostly get back to racing...
Last edited by TheStig on 11 Oct 2004, 12:33, edited 1 time in total.
I think all people who use forum should somehow keep the place civilized. But as the case here has often been, people will just rant on and on, and since I've been here a while, I feel I need to say something, because I don't want this section to turn into a load of crappy-single-smiley posts like it happend in so many other places here.
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Phantom_R32
- Ricer
- Posts: 25
- Joined: 31 Oct 2004, 04:55
- Location: Bay City, Michigan
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Phantom_R32
- Ricer
- Posts: 25
- Joined: 31 Oct 2004, 04:55
- Location: Bay City, Michigan
I never said i would want to go around it at full throttle....if anyone did that on that game it would be serious wall rape'age..im just saying the ability to turn is horrible compared to games like GT3 and NFSU..on juiced you can slow down to like 60 mph and you still cant turn worth shiznit...or maybe its just the demo...idkTheStig wrote:and a other one who thinks that a car with 500 BHP on the rear wheels can go full trottle around a corner...
)when I say full trottle I don't mean Full SPEED!!! 60 MHP is a DAMN high speed for a 90deg corner... ever tried doing it with your car???Phantom_R32 wrote:I never said i would want to go around it at full throttle....if anyone did that on that game it would be serious wall rape'age..im just saying the ability to turn is horrible compared to games like GT3 and NFSU..on juiced you can slow down to like 60 mph and you still cant turn worth s**t...or maybe its just the demo...idkTheStig wrote:and a other one who thinks that a car with 500 BHP on the rear wheels can go full trottle around a corner...
and yes you can do it with a high speed if you take the corner the right way... start wide cut corner and end wide....
but steer and accelerate is fatal...
it is simply called realism...
Phantom, just accept what others are telling you - your impression of realistic car driving is false. you can't judge realism of anything going by games like NFSU and GT3. Those are arcade games. And so is juiced, but Juiced at least tries to simulate some physics, while NFSU in particular DISregards it. In real life, only real sports cars can do a 90degree corner doing 90km/h. In a real car, do it at 90 and tell us how much the reapair bill is.
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nfsu2master
- Drift King
- Posts: 322
- Joined: 15 Nov 2004, 23:46
- Location: new york
